


Love Lies

by hamine2



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 03:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19054660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamine2/pseuds/hamine2
Summary: Lena is angry.Kara says goodbye.A war starts.Supergirl makes the hardest of sacrifices.





	Love Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I never read the comics, and I don't know what actually happens in the crisis, so this is not at all canon, just a scenario that I came up with.  
> Also, English is not my first language :v

A waterfall of papers descended from her desk onto the floor. Shaking hands grabbed a glass of scotch and emptied it before she could even blink. Fingers tapped aimlessly at the computer, dancing alone and without a beat.

It was late at night, the clock told her as much. And still, there was no reason to go home. She didn't need to sleep, to eat, to do anything else than just distract her brain from the terrible news.

She was angry. No, she was pissed off. Utterly furious. A inch away from going mad. She had been lied to. She had been betrayed. She also had murdered her own brother.  
If seeing her mother die had already been a shot at her sanity, killing Lex had destroyed any hopes she had of being a balanced, normal person.

For a moment, she stopped typing, ran both hands over her tear stained face and took a deep breath in. She was about to fill her glass again, to drown her sorrows in the bitter taste of alcohol, when the screen of her computed flickered to blue. Oh, great. She had just lost an entire night of work, apparently.

Punching the desk out of frustration, she closed her eyes, cursing every single god she could think of.

Then, the screen flickered again. Slowly, an image started to form. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Kara.

"What the hell?"

The connection seemed to be unstable, to say the least, and the quality of the video was poor. Still, she'd recognize that damned crest any day, no matter how pixelated.

"Lena, if you are listening to me, don't restart your computer, please!" It was the first thing the blonde said, desperation clear in her voice. "I know this will sound way too complicated, but I'm not in our dimention. This message is not live, and if it arrives at all, it will be a miracle of science. And by science, I mean Brainy."

"You're welcome." He briefly popped up in the left, smiling.

"I'm sorry we hacked into your computer like this, but we... I, needed to talk to you, before everything goes down."

Lena moved closer to the screen, throat tightening.

"We are in a dimention where a massive war is going on. I can't tell you more about it right now because it could seriously affect the continuity of our timeline, but... Rao, how do I even say this?" The blonde looked down, eyes watering. She took a deep breath in and looked at the camera again. "... There is a big chance that all of us, superheroes...will die."  
Of all the things the younger Luthor expected to hear, this was never one of the options.  
"No one knows about this; I didn't want them to worry, or to get their lives in danger because of me." The Kryptonian confessed, and with each word, Lena's heartbeat spiked. "But I... I didn't, couldn't l-lie to you. Not again. If I come back home in a coffin, I want you to know why. And I want you to get your answers before I do. So here it goes... My last attempt of apologizing." She wiped her tears, but didn't look away. "I don't have a lot of time, but want you to know, I didn't lie because you were a Luthor. I didn't lie because I didn't trust you. I didn't lie because I wanted to use you. I lied because I loved you.-"

"Kara..."

"- I did it because I wanted you to be safe, because I wanted you to trust me, because you were the only one who saw me as me, and not as a god. I was selfish, I was dumb, but mostly, I was just trying to protect what we had... To protect you. I don't expect you to forgive me. Honestly, I don't even know if you can. But I wanted you to hear my side of the story, before it all ends. I couldn't leave without giving you some answers. I'm sorry I cannot give them all right now. I love you. Please, please never forget that."As if on cue, a couple of explosions went out in the background. The camera shook, and the image desintegrated to blue again, but not before she could hear it."Goodbye, Lena."

She wanted to scream. To demand better answers. To deny everything the hero had said. But suddenly, the screen went back to normal, as if nothing at all had actually happened.

She felt sick.

Did that message mean Kara was dead? Where the hell was she? How long ago had that message been recorded? How did they manage to send it?

Desperate, the CEO grabbed her phone and called her number. She was out of reach, of course she was. Her next option was Alex.

"Pick up, pick up!"

"Lena, it's almost three in the morning-"

"Alex, where the hell is Kara?"

"Probably in her loft, resting. We gave her the weekend off, but why are you asking?"

"She's not answering the phone."

"Maybe she's asleep-"

"No, Alex, you don't get it. I was in my office, working, when all of the sudden my computer was hacked, and it started playing a video she and brainy had recorded. She is in an alternate dimension, in danger, and like the idiot she is, she didn't told anyone about it!"

"Wait a minute, slow down. Did you say alternate dimension? Did she tell you in what earth she was in? Or how did she manage to contact you?"

"No, she didn't tell me where she was. The only thing I know is that Brainy helped her broadcast the video, and that she is in danger."

"Okay, I get it, calm down. I'll get dressed and drive us both to the DEO. Maybe someone knows something."

"Alright...thank you."

"Did she say anything else? Anything important?"

"Well, she mentioned that the place she is in is at war, and that there's a big chance she won't come back alive..."

"Shit. That's not good."

"Indeed." Her weak voice replied.

"Lena?"

"Yes?"

"Did she apologize to you?" The Director asked, wanting to know how final Kara's goodbye had been.

"Yes... She did."

"Do you forgive her?"

"I... I don't know yet."

"Are you sure you want to come with me then?"

That question was subtle like a slap in the face.

"Just because I'm hurt, Alex, it doesn't mean I hate her. Of course I'm coming. I want to see her safe."

"I never said you did. I just was curious to know if you still were on our team."

"Always." She replied. "Now come pick me up. We've got a Super to save."

  
\----

They found Kara with relative ease. The suit she was wearing had been designed by none other than Lena herself, whom -in true Luthor fashion- had implanted a GPS tracker in it's system. Alex and Brainy had modified it a few months ago so they could track her through time and space, a decision which proved now to be very useful.

As it turns out, she had gone to Earth-1 alongside other superheroes, to fight a man Alex had called "Reverse-Flash". The battle had caused incountable deaths, injuries, and all kind of losses. It had been a short lived war, yes, but one of massive repercutions.  
The Kryptonian had survived, somehow, but the things she'd seen hadn't left her in the best state of mind.

When she walked back into her Earth, crossing a portal that the Legends had created for her return, a shadow of pain seemed to follow her path. Brainy had his hand on her back, moving her along, trying his best to comfort a miserable Girl of Steel.  
At her sight, all agents in DEO sighed in relief, believing her to be okay, but both Alex and Lena could see the actual truth. She had already crossed the breaking point. She was far, far away from "okay".

"Don't you ever scare us like that again." Alex ordered softly, hugging her as tight as humanly possible, before grabbing her by the arm and taking her away from the eyes of the amused crowd.

Lena followed suit, in silence, as they crossed the door of the DEO interrogation room. Meanwhile, Brainy stayed behind to give everyone the explanations they deserved.

"Figured you needed a little bit of silence." The director said to her sister, watching her plummet down to one of the chairs, clearly exhausted.

"Thanks." It was her only reply. She didn't have the strength to say anything else. Her eyes were glued to the wall in front of her, as her mind replayed the horrors of the battle she'd just finished fighting.

Alex saw her blank expression as a warning. There was a certain coldness in her demeanor that worried her deeply. Her silence was sharp, and overall, she seemed haunted. Something had changed, and she was too afraid to know what.

She then chose not to dig deeper; she wasn't ready yet. Besides, there were other problems that need to be solved first. Like the the bloody gash that sliced Kara's left arm open, for instance. And were those burns in the palms of her hands?

"Kar, I'm going to the Med Bay to grab a few things so we can patch you up. Will you be alright if I leave you with Lena?"

"Yeah." The super replied softly; the fragility in her voice was heartbreaking.

"Okay then." Alex kissed her forehead, before turning away, walking towards the CEO. "Talk to her? please?... It can be about whatever, but... Try to keep her mind busy. She's had a hell of a night."

The woman only nodded, and the redhead patted her arm, taking one last look at her sister before leaving.

"Kara?..." Lena slowly approached her, watching the blonde recoil shyly in her seat. They spent a few moments in silence before she dared to speak up again. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Honestly?... I don't know..." She huffed, tired. "I'm scared that if I say something, you'll hate me even more than you already do."

"I don't hate you."

"You should." The reporter answered without hesitation. "I deserve it."

Lena could tell, only by her hollowed gaze, that this self-lapidation wasn't rooted in their previous arguments and fights. It was brand new, fresh, and it was eating her insides.

"What really happened tonight? And please, be honest."

That last request made the alien woman flinch. But, it did manage to make her open up. Which, for the Luthor, deemed her harshness to be forgivable.

"Leviathan and Reverse Flash attacked. At the same time. In the same place. Earth-1 needed all of the help they could get. And still... It wasn't enough." She stopped, and searched the support of her favourite pair of green eyes before continuing. "Did you get my message?"

"I did." Lena crossed her arms, moving closer to the hero. "You knew you could get killed, why did you go?" The question came with no judgement, only curiosity.

"My friends were in danger, I had to help. Besides, Barry had just lost his daughter... When he asked for my assistance, I couldn't say no."

"Barry?"

"The Flash."

"Oh..." Now that was a name she could remember. "And how did everything turn out?"

"Well, we won. But there were... Losses."

"What do you mean?"

"Oliver... Green Arrow, he... He died." The Kryptonian revealed. "He saved my life... Took a Kryptonite dagger to the heart to protect me. I wanted to stop him, to push him back, but I-I couldn't. I was weak... I couldn't..." She squared her jaw and closed her eyes, locking away her tears. "It all happened so fast!... I saw him get stabbed, and then I crawled to his body as quickly as I could, to see if I could help, but the wound was so deep, and so red!..." She breathed in, shaking. "I held h-him until he was gone... And the last thing he asked me, before he left, was for me to take his body to his wife... To take him home. He just wanted to go home..." Lena rested her left hand on her back, drawing gentle circles on the fabric of her suit. It was all it took for the woman to finally break down completely. "You should have seen the face of his wife, Lena!... The pain she was feeling.. It haunts me until now. They had a baby, for Rao's sake!... And I... I wish I had been the one to take that knife... not him."

"Kara..."

"It's the truth!" She continued. "And it's not fair!... But him, dying... It was perhaps our only chance of winning." Blue orbs looked down onto her burned hands, catching Lena's inmediate attention.

"What do you mean?"

Her fists closed.

"To save Earth-1, and defeat our enemies, we needed to use one of the most powerful weapons ever created. Orion's Astro-Harness."

"Orion..."

"The god, yes." Kara replied. "No one knows how, but he is dead. And the guy in charge of protecting his harness was Clark- Superman. Apparently Wonder Woman asked him to hide it, anyway, it's a long story... The important part is that we had it. But it was stored in a part of the city controlled by our enemies... So while Barry fought Reverse Flash with the others, me and Oliver were trying to get to that artifact before it was to late. And he died, so I could get to it."

"I'm so sorry-"

"I wore it." The blonde confessed nervously. "And I-I used it to kill... To destroy, all of Leviathan."

The CEO was shocked. Impressed. Deeply, profoundly worried.

"I could have died... That thing... It was meant for a god, Lena! And I... I'm just a Kryptonian! I should be dead... I should..."

"Is that why your hands are burned?" It was her first concern.

The Luthor was confused, to say the least. Trying to make sense of the confirmation of a multiverse, the existence of gods, and the posibility of time travel at the same time, while also digesting the fact that her best friend had almost died, it was a hard task. Don't blame her if she couldn't think of a deeper, more philosophical question.

"Yeah, I-I think so..." Kara snapped her out of her thoughts. "I don't understand... Why aren't you screaming at me right now?"

"Kara..." She moved closer. "You saved a planet. You ended what it could have been an endless war."

"I played god! I killed thousands! I did exactly what you feared I'd someday do!"

"You saved those who were innocent!"

The blonde's quiet tears suddenly became full on sobs. She knotted both hands on her honeyed hair, pulling them out of sheer stress. Soon enough, she couldn't breathe, the walls were closing in on her, and the lights above her head shone way too brighter than they should.

"Hey Kara? Look at me? Please?"  
A voice that wasn't Lena's spoke to her, gently.

"Alex?"

"Yeah, it's me. I came back to patch you up. I told you I'd return." Her smooth voice slowly brought her towards calm seas again.  
Kneeling down before her younger sister, the Director kissed her forehead, untangling her strong fingers from her mane. Icy irises looked up in fright.

"I'm here. You're safe. Everything is going to be fine." The redhead reassured, as the hero fell fowards, letting herself be hugged by her warm arms.

Half an hour passed until Kara gained her composure back. Alex cleaned and closed her wounds while Lena filled the silence with polite conversation, not daring to discuss the events of that night again.

Once the Kryptonian was stable enough, they took her to the sun lamps, so she could recharge her energies and rest.  
Noticing the little snores coming from the bed, both women left her alone in the room, choosing to stay in the hallway in case of an emergency.

"Okay, you spoke to her before she spiralled. Tell me, how bad what happened is?"

The CEO crossed her arms, sighing deeply.

"She killed every member of Leviathan. And to do it, she wore some kind of weapon made especifically for a god, hence the burned hands."

"She killed people? Supergirl doesn't do that!"

"Desperate times call for desperate actions. Besides, she just had watched one of her friends die."

"Who?"

"Green Arrow."

"Oliver's dead?!... Oh no, this is bad. This is really bad."

"Yes, I suppose it is. Kara told me he saved her from getting stabbed with a Kryptonite dagger. She flew his body back to his wife, after everything ended."

"Damn it!..." Alex leaned into the wall, sliding down to the floor. She wasn't crying, but surely was devastated.

Lena sat down next to her a few minutes after, equally as tired. Before they could even notice, both had fallen asleep on the cold tiles of the DEO.

When they woke up, it was to a soft breeze and a man in a red suit.

"Barry?" The Director stirred, disturbing the the other woman as well.

"Hi, Alex. And Miss Luthor." He kindly helped both of them onto their feets.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but how do you know my name? Aren't you from a different dimension?" Lena questioned.

"Oh, yes, that I am. But me and Kara are friends. She's always speaking highly of you."

"These two like to meet up and break havoc when they don't have nothing better to do. That's why she sometimes disappears and not even the DEO can find her. She "travels" as a civilian with this guy as her company." Alex mentioned, smiling kindly.

"Hey, it's not like we hide from you or something! We just like to hang out... In different timelines. Without using our alter-egos." He said with a hint of guilt. "Also, there's this really cool place in Earth-12 where they sell the best potstickers in the universe! If you truly need us, we mostly likely are in there eating."

"Good to know." Alex replied as Lena snorted a laugh.

The thought of an alien superhero skipping dimentions just to eat Chinese dumplings amused her.

"Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Where is Kara?"

"Resting under the sun lamps."

"Good. She needs it. How is she holding up?"

"She's alive, that's a start." the Luthor answered.

"Yeah... Thank god we were able to bring her back, right?"

Both women's eyes snapped open in surprise.

"What are you saying, Barry?"

"She didn't tell you, did she?" He mumbled, regretting ever opening his mouth. "To win the battle, we had to destroy Leviathan and it's leaders. One of which, was your brother, Lex Luthor."

"Lex is dead. I shot him." Lena denied.

"He was brought back to life, and was recruited as part of Leviathan." he explained. "Anyway, during the fight, he tried to stab Kara with a Kryptonite dagger, but Oliver stopped him."

"Lex killed Oliver?"

"Yes. His ultimate plan was to murder both of them, but your sister managed to escape. And she found the weapon we needed to end that war."

"Orion's harness. She mentioned it to us."

"Yes. The Astro-Harness is a very powerful artifact. It is self-repairing; it gives you magnetic control over objects, so you can tow things over from a distance; it grants you energy manipulation, which allows you to create force fields; and of course, it also has it's Astro-Force Projection, that allows the user to create massive blasts of energy that can destroy a whole city." he explained with excitement, that soon was replaced with grief. "The thing is, the harness was meant for a god, and Kara - even being as powerful as she is..."

"Isn't a god." Lena completed.

"Exactly. But we were losing the battle quickly, and there was no one between us that was as strong as her; so it had to be her. She grabbed that thing and flew as high as she could into the sky. And then she blasted the hostile side of the city, leaving nothing behind. As she was flying, she asked everyone to try and evacuate as many civilians as possible, but our time was running short, and we didn't manage to get everyone out before everything was blown away." Barry crossed his arms, eyes watering. "Please understand, Kara had no choice. She either destroyed that part of the city and saved multiple dimensions from being erased, or she allowed Leviathan and our other enemies to live... And everyone else to die."

"Wait... Other dimensions were threatened?" Alex caught onto the slip after a few seconds of silence.

"Leviathan and Reverse Flash were both working for the Antimonitor, a guy that wants to destroy the Multiverse." he dropped the final bomb. "So yeah, they were threatened."

"... It makes sense why the attack was in Earth-1 now..."

"I don't follow." Lena interjected.

"Earth -1 is a central junction in the multiverse; the middle intersection from which one can travel to any other alternate Earth." Barry explained shortly. "Destroying that intersection would also destroy the bridges that conect the Multiverse. That's why entire dimensions and timelines would vanish if our enemies won."

"A tree can't grow without a root." Lena pondered for a while. "So, from what you are telling us, this battle must have been massive..."

"It was... It truly was." he agreed. "Kara, she had to see the worst parts of it all. She had to put down hundreds, thousands of people, just to save us. Oliver may have died a martyr, but she... She had to make the worst of sacrifices. She had to watch a city, filled with innocent people, burn... Again." A couple of tears fell from his eyes, but he didn't dare to wipe them away. "When she came down from the sky, we already had won the fight. I saw her throwing the harness away and looking at the burning buildings before falling over her knees. She told me "This is like Krypton all over again" before her heart gave out." his voice cracked, and he coughed softly. "...We were lucky, we were able to bring her back quickly, but... We're worried; I am worried... About how she's feeling right now."

"You have all rights to be." Alex said, tearing up as well. "But she's strong. She's going to be fine. I know it."

"I really hope you're right." Barry smiled with sadness. "And I hope you guys will be fine too, this must be very difficult for you to handle."

"Well, it's not everyday your computer is hacked and you get a goodbye video from a loved one as a bonus." Lena joked with a hint of sorrow.

"Yeah.... I was there when that video was recorded. I'm sorry she couldn't say all of these things to you in person. She wanted to, trust me." He assured. "She wanted to tell you the truth since the day she saved you from that falling plane, but she couldn't. It was too dangerous for anyone to know her secret. She didn't want to put you in danger."

"Really? I thought she didn't want to tell me, I believed she didn't."

"Are you kidding me? She had a two years long crisis about coming out to you!" The superhero said with a cornered smile. "She almost did it several times! When you got poisoned, for instance! She flew you into the DEO in her civilian clothes!"

"So that wasn't a dream..."

"Nope." Alex answered, mimicking Barry's side smile. "She always has cared for you, even if she wasn't honest. It's not like she lied because she hated you."

"She lied because..."

"She loves you." The man completed the sentence, bringing back the memories of Kara's heartfelt goodbye.

At that precise moment, Lena's jaw slightly dropped. She seemed to have realized something extraordinary, mind-blowing, completely new and shocking.

"Huh..." She then half-whispered, looking around at the amused, tear stained faces of her companions. "I, ugh... I need to... I'll go inside to see how she's doing... I'll be back soon." Before she turned back though, she laid a hand on Barry's shoulder, and gently said: "Thank you... For caring for her. And for all that's worth, it's not only you that worries about her, she worries about you too. And I know that if she were awake, she would tell you to go have a shower and a few hours of sleep."

"Promise you'll call me when she is feeling better?"

"I promise." The Luthor replied. "I take that you aren't "going home" yet, and that you don't have a residence in this dimension. Here..." She took out a small business card from the inner pockets of her suit. "Call this number, and Jess, my assistant, will help you with whatever you need; clothes, hotel, anything. I'll make sure of it."

His smile grew wider and he nodded, hands brushing his red and puffy eyes.

"Thank you."

The last thing Lena saw as she walked back into the room was Alex moving closer to him, giving him one of her famous sisterly bear hugs.

Content with the view, she dragged herself away from the door, and sat in a cold metal chair that laid beside the sunbed.

Once alone, she exhaled loudly, and ran both hands over her face. How could she have been so dumb? She had spent all of this time angry, bathing in hatred, wallowing in the bitterness of Kara's lies. Yet, she hadn't stopped, for a single moment, to think about how many times the super had defended her from her enemies, risking her own secret identity for the sake of her life. She hadn't stopped to think about how much light she had brought upon her darkest days, she hadn't remembered how the Kryptonian had, essencially, saved her from herself.

When she felt down, flowers awaited her at her desk.

When she felt weak, a new article was published praising her good deeds.

When she felt lonely, the blonde would walk into her office, arms full of takeout bags, a million Watt-smile shining on her face.

Yes, the betrayal had hurt like hell, she couldn't deny it. But she also couldn't deny that Kara, even being as wrong as she was, cared about her deeply, and wouldn't want to hurt her on purpose.

And then, the puzzle was solved.

Kara indeed loved her. She was telling the truth, because the signs were everywhere. She just had been too blind to see them.

"Huh." Lena repeated, looking up at where the woman rested.

A pang of guilt stabbed her stomach. Perhaps, if she hadn't reacted as badly as she had, she could have helped Kara in this new crisis. Maybe, in another timeline, the hero wouldn't have been forced to kill innocent people to protect the entirety of the multiverse.

"I can feel you staring, you know?" Her dry voice echoed around the room, forcing Lena to rise from her chair and walk up to her.

"How are you feeling?"

"Bad... But not as bad as before." The Kryptonian replied. "Don't take this badly, please... But why are you still here?"

"I love you." Came the straight foward answer that slipped between her teeth before she could even think about it. "And I couldn't leave you... Not now, not ever."

"You don't need to lie to me to make me feel better..."

"I'm not lying." She insisted, caressing her left arm. "I wouldn't lie about this. I love you. And I've been wanting to tell you that for a long time. I'm sorry I made you think I despised you. I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to explain yourself. I'm sorry you felt like you had to go into a suicidal battle alone, without backup, just to save people like me."

"I'll always save "people like you"... And I'll always save you." She smiled, eyes quickly watering. "And you don't have to apologize... You had the right to be angry. I lied to you."

"And still, you didn't betray me." Lena said with conviction, exchanging looks with the confused woman. "Do you know what my mother, Jack, Lex, Rea, Eve, and all other people who lied to me had in common? They betrayed me. Backstabbed me at my weakest, and left me behind to bleed. But you... You never did that. You may have lied, yes, but you never really meant to hurt me. You kept saving me from everything!" Her dry laugh made the Super smile, raising one of her bandaged hands to hold hers. "You were always there, you didn't leave me behind. And that's why I've chosen to forgive you."

"You..."

"Yes. I forgive you. No more hatred, no more grudges. It's all in the past." Lena leaned down, green eyes full of love and adoration. "I almost lost you today. And because of that, I realized... I don't want to fight with you anymore. There are way better things we should be doing."

"Really? Can you give me an example?" Kara whispered, running her fingers through her soft raven hair."

"I have a few ones in mind."

And just like that, the space between them was closed, lips smiling happily over a long awaited kiss.

 


End file.
